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University Daily Kansan Friday. March 26,1954
Oldest Living Coach Praises New One Kennedy Lists Mather, Constitution Settlers as Ohio's Gifts To Kansas
Raised Assistant Sports Editor
The state of Ohio has given Kansas three great gifts—the early residents, the Wyandotte constitution (which was adopted in 1559 and was almost an exact copy of the Ohio constitution), and Gnuck Mather, the new KU football coach. Dr. A. R. (Burt) Kennedy, oldest living ex-KU football coach and Lawrence dentist, claims.
Dr. Kennedy was near KU football coach from 1904 through 1910, establishing one of the finest, if not the finest record in the school's history, winning 53, losing nine, and tying four.
The T8-year-old next- to-oldest KU football captain, who is in business with his son, said "I want to congratulate the authorities for selecting Chuck Mather as coach because I think that he can handle the boys."
His teams won seven straight games from Oklahoma; three of five from Nebraska; won four, lost one, and tied two with Missouri.
DR. A. R. KENNEDY
and scored a stunning 24-5 victory over a powerful, but over confident, Notre Dame team. His poorest season, 1907, he won five of eight.
Dr. Kennedy's career began at KU in 1895 when he was the Jayhawker quarterback, a position he held the next two years, captaining the 1897 team. During these three years, KU won 21 and lost six.
As a school boy, Dr. Kennedy played shinny, Indian lacrosse, and other modern football predecessors. He watched his first game in 1890 when the first KU team was playing in the old enclosed park which was located where Liberty Memorial High school now stands at 14th and Massachusetts sts. The thing that stood out in his mind was the fun the players had, possibly he says, because officials were college professors who knew little about the game, and stressed the sportsmanship rather than good football.
Football began at Mt. Oread that year when Charles V. Baldridge, an engineering student, passed the hat to buy uniforms and other equipment for a team. The other man who played a prominent part in the birth of KU football was E. M. Hopkins, professor of English, who was graduated from Princeton in 1890 and brought a football and a book of rules when he joined the Kansas staff in 1890. He acted in the capacities of sponsor, manager, and coach of the team.
That first season. KU played Baker, Washburn, and a YMCA team. Against hated Baker, Prof. A J Carruth acted as referee and on a disputed play awarded Baker the winning touchdown, because he thought that "we should show courtesy to our guests." This infuriated the boys and ended Prof. Carruth's career as a referee.
In 1891 KU had its first undefeated season, easily winning the newly established triangular league (Baker, Washburn, and KU) championship.
In 1892 and 1893 A. W. Shepard, a Cornell graduate, was the coach. In 1893, Hector Cowan, a graduate
of Princeton and a pastor at a St. Joseph, Mo., church commuted to Lawrence to advise the coach.
Mr. Cowan, an all-American guard at Princeton, became the first paid KU coach in 1894 and also was appointed KU chapel director. He played guard in one of the most memorable battles in KU football history. In that game—a 6-6 tie with Baker-Cowan played across the line from "Ugly" Taylor, another great lineman.
This was the first game played on McCook field, site of the present stadium, which had been given to the University by Gen. J. J. McCook, who also supplied the fences and bleachers.
The year 1896 was the last season for Mr. Cowan, and he was replaced by Dr. Wiley G. Woodruff, a Pennsylvania graduate who completely changed the KU offense, abandoning the flying wedge and installing the guardsback Penn offense.
This system proved very successful, for Kansas won 15 and lost but three games during his two seasons, including 16-0 and 12-0 shutouts of Missouri. Two of the three losses were to hated Nebraska. The Kansas-Missouri series had begun in 1891, and at this time the Tigers were a big rival, but on a "cheerful" scale, while Nebraska always provided the "grudge game."
The year 1893 was characterized by the five-yard gain and the flying wedge. A team had to make at least five yards in three downs or lose 20.
In 1895, another battle, famous in the early KU gridiron history, was the big intersectional game against the University of Iowa. Kansas winning 56-0.
Fielding H. Yost took over as head coach in 1899 and authored an all-victorious season. Quarterback Benny Owen and fullback Hubert Avery were the outstanding men on the team, which also boasted the famous Kansas mystery player who enabled the Jayhawks to beat Nebraska 36-20 in another of the all-time KU games.
Yost had inherited a senior team which had 10 fine players, but one tackle position kept the team from being unbeaten. Yost had played at West Virginia alongside a great tackle by the name of Jim Krebs, so Yost sent a hurry-up call for Krebs, who showed up shortly before the game with the powerful Cornhuskers. The mystery man Krebs played a tremendous game against NU, filling the gap which had plagued the team, supposedly, all season.
The following year Charles Boynton took over the job, and his team, minus the stars of the year before, fell below the 500 mark for the first time since 1893, winning two, losing five, and tying two.
Dr. John Outland, an 1895 Jayhawk star, took over as head coach in 1900 after a three-year playing career at Pennsylvania in which he made Walter Camps'
all-American team in 1897 as a halfback and in 1898 as a tackle—the first Kansas man to make the all-American team and the first player ever to make the team at different positions. Although a great player, he failed to have any success as coach and bowed out to Arthur Curtis. Harold Weeks took over the following year, 1903, and lost to Washburn, then coached by Dr. Kennedy.
adelphia team which he coached, the forerunner of the Philadelphia Eagles, was the best team the promoter could find, so it represented New York City in the tourney. They played in the finals against a team from Watertown, N.Y., coached by Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, coach of the Carlisle Indians, who had several Indians on the team in addition to a former Princeton all-American.
After graduating from KU, Dr. Kennedy went to Pennsylvania university where he continued to play by organizing a professional football team. He played on that squad and also on a western Pennsylvania team which played teams from Massillon and Canton, Ohio.
This occurred in an indoor professional tournament during the 1902 Christmas season in old Madison Square Garden. This Phil-
While at Penn he played in the first "bowl" game and also the first game played indoors.
The Watertown team won by one touchdown in the final quarter. Dr. Kennedy's team scored, but the score was disallowed. The rule then was that if the ball was kicked over the goal line and recovered, it was a touchdown. Ben Roller kicked the ball into the stands. Philadelphia recovered it, and the referee signaled a touchdown which would have tied the game. But as one of Dr. Kennedy's teammates was carrying the ball down from it, Watertown got the ball after a nearbrawl, and the umire called off
Dr. Kennedy returned to Kansas then and became head coach at Washburn, guiding the Topekans to an all-victorious season, including triumphs over both KU and Missouri. At Washburn, he abandoned the T-formation he had used for years and went to the single wing formation.
"If I could get those two old goats, Amos and Pop, (Amos Alonzo Stagg and Warner) to admit that they hadn't used it before 1903. I could take full credit for inventing the single wing," Dr Kennedy said.
In 1904 he came to KU as head coach, inheriting a team that had won six of nine games the previous season. That year he won eight, lost one, and tied one.
During his seven years as coach he had several great players, including such stars as Tommy Johnson, Al Hicks, Burt Pooler, Carl Rouse, Pat Crowell, Carl pleasant, and Printiss Donald.
Of all the games which Dr. Kennedy won, probably the one he enjoyed the most was the 1908 Nebraska game which KU won.
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